Commission Constituted on Cuyahoga County Government Reform

Pursuant to section 703.30 of HB 562, the Ohio General Assembly recently created a Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform. To get that Commission started, Governor Strickland and others have named 9 county residents as members who will study and deliberate on the future of Cuyahoga county's governmental structure. Included on this new panel are: 1) David Abbott, Executive Director for the George Gund Foundation; 2) Stanley Miller, Executive Director of the Cleveland branch of the NAACP; 3) Judy Rawson, the former Mayor of Shaker Heights; 4) Bruce Akers, the Mayor of Pepper Pike; 5) Jerry Hruby, the Mayor of Brecksville; 6) Louis Stokes, a former Congressman who is an attorney with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey; 7) Ernest Wilkerson, a local attorney; 8) Kathleen Barber, a retired political science professor whose classes I took at John Carroll University in the early '80's; and 9) Jim McMonagle, a former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge now working as an attorney at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. These individuals have only until November 7th to propose changes for restructuring local government under this stated statutory mission:

"The Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform shall develop recommendations by which Cuyahoga County may, with a vote of the people, restructure, reform, or otherwise reorganize the county government to implement a more effective, efficient, and financially and economically viable county government structure to better serve the people of Cuyahoga County." (Section 703.30 of HB562). Section 503.30 of the Bill allocates $200,000 in operating expenses for the Commission.